A complete and balanced introduction to the sociological study of the family.

Sociology of the Family (2nd Edition)

Nock, Steven L.

Parenting & Relationships

Pearson

A complete and balanced introduction to the sociological study of the family.

Sociology of the Family

PRENTICE/HALL

This basic text is acutely sensitive to the needs of the beginning student. It presents a balance of theoretical and functional perspetive for a thorough introduction to sociology. Coser, one of the most visible and articular of contemporary sociologists, considers all sides of an issue, social event, or phenomenon with a balance of theoretical and functional perspectives.

Introduction to Sociology

Politics & Social Sciences

Spain, Daphne

Coser, Lewis A.

Steffan, Patricia A.

Social Sciences

Harcourt College Pub.

There are two marriages in every marital union, his and hers. Men and women live in worlds that are organized around gender, and their marriages reflect differing realities. As life companions, they respond to each other; but they also respond to the cultural definitions of what it means to be a husband and a wife. What has fascinated social and behavioral scientists for several years, however, is not only that husbands' and wives' experiences are different, but also that 'his' marriage is better than 'hers'. Numerous findings have reported that married men are better off than married women on measures of both physical and mental health, but the reasons are not yet fully understood. In Marriage in Men's Lives Dr. Nock proposes an explanation to this issue. He focuses on marriage as a system of rules, customs, and expectations. The book shows that marriage changes men on basic dimensions of achievement, participation in public social life, and philanthropy because marriage reinforces such behaviors as part of adult masculinity. Men in modern society crave well-being, comfort, luxury, and prestige, and marriage affords a means of achieving these things within circumscribed legitimate boundaries. Using a huge data base of over 6,000 interviews with men the author has studied since 1979, Nock draws some interesting and far-reaching conclusions about the nature of marriage, and predicts that marriage is definitely here to stay.

Marriage in Men's Lives

Self-Help

Relationships

Oxford University Press

The Costs of Privacy: Surveillance and Reputation in America (Social Institutions and Social Change)

Americans now enjoy vastly more privacy than in the past. But privacy makes it difficult to know much about other people; more privacy means more strangers. The Costs of Privacy begins with these questions: How, in an anonymous society of strangers, is trust possible? What enables both individuals and institutional actors to trust others whom they have never met and do not know? Nock suggests an answer: that surveillance establishes reputations, and it is these which permit us to trust strangers. Simply put, actors are willing to trust those whose reputations justify that trust. Not only does surveillance establish reputations, but it also maintains them among strangers. Nock defines such surveillance functionally, as overt and conspicuous forms of credentials (e.g., credit cards, educational degrees, drivers' licenses) and/or ordeals (e.g., lie detector tests, drug tests, integrity tests). He shows that the use of credentials and ordeals, over time, is correlated with the number of strangers in our society. Anonymity, then, is one of the costs of greater personal privacy; surveillance is another, offsetting cost. Older methods of surveillance have long been staples of our society. The concluding chapter focuses on newer methods of surveillance, those which can record genetic and biochemical information about people. Unlike traditional bases of reputation, genetic information makes it possible to predict future physical illnesses, mental health problems, and various types of behavior. These new forms of surveillance may seem attractive because they make it possible for actors to enter into risky relationships with many more people (i.e., trust them) without ever getting to know them. In so doing, we may be altering the nature of our public life. And that, argues Nock, may be the greatest cost of privacy.

Business & Money

Economics

de Gruyter

The Sociology of Public Issues

Kingston, Paul W.

Wadsworth Pub. Co.

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